Catholic board votes to consider closing school
Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education trustees unanimously passed a motion at Tuesday’s public meeting to consider the closure of Ecole St. Thomas d’Aquin, and move its French immersion program to St. John Paul II Elementary when that school opens for classes in Sept. 2018.
Ecole St. Thomas d’Aquin parents were informed in a letter sent home Monday that the Catholic board would be discussing closure at Tuesday’s meeting.
MHCBE chair Disk Mastel outlined the board’s thinking to start discussion. Citing a lack of growth in attendance numbers at Ecole St. Thomas over the past three years, and a $2.7-million infrastructure price tag attached to refurbishing the building quoted to the board, Mastel said it simply did not make sense to keep Ecole Thomas d’Aquin open any longer.
“With the opening of St. Jon Paul II, we now have more seats in our schools than we have bodies to fill them,” he said.
Trustee Kathy Glasgo also expressed her hope with the move over to St. John Paul II would help the district’s French immersion program thrive.
“It’s not that it’s not working,” said Glasgo. “It just hasn’t grown ... So one of the ideas was to do a duo-track (French/English) elementary school, which the statistics seems to says is the jolt you need to grow.”
Trustee David Leahy also agreed with the motion for closure, but felt the previous board had handled the whole matter poorly.
“It was stated in this board room by administration and returning board members that they didn’t want to make a motion for closure of St. Thomas school in the spring,” he said. “They wanted to put it off until a new board was elected.
“By putting that decision off, you have created needless anxiety in the parent population where they are getting a note one day, and being advised the next day there is a board meeting to talk about it.”
Trustee Peter Grad objected strongly to Leahy’s characterization of the previous board’s decision.
“There will be more discussions,” retorted Grad. “We have another full month to the next board meeting. And sometime between now and then there will be an opportunity for parents (in a special public meeting) to come and talk to us.”
However, several parents in the gallery nodded vigorously when Leahy levelled his criticism. Nicole Wanner was one of those parents who thought the Dec. 11 notice was insufficient.
“There has obviously already been a lot of discussion that has gone into this plan,” she said. “I am hoping for this public meeting that the board will take into consideration they are elected members, and they are elected to represent us as parents. And as such, I think it is important for them receive and obtain our feedback before major decisions like this are made.”
The special public meeting on the Ecole St. Thomas d’Aquin closure will take place on Jan. 8.